Solutions to Assignments
MBA and MBA (Banking & Finance)
MMPC-008 - Information System for Managers
MMPC-008/TMA/JAN/2022
Question No. 2. What are the technology related challenges that are invisible to your organization? Highlight the pitfalls? How integrated software applications can help in this?
Maintaining records for use, as and when, has been in practice right from
the ancient times. Initially people were required to keep record of their
possession so that governing body could take tax from them. Government and
traders kept records to plan their activities better. With the industrialization,
it became necessary for industry owners and managers to keep records
of inventory and accounts. Management needed more information for
internal decisions. Investors, on the other hand, needed information about
the organizations, its soundness, and health. In spite of the technological
developments, there is an ever-increasing demand for more and more
information.
Information and Information Technology have become a strategic
necessity. The business environment has become much more competitive.
It has become mandatory on the part of the organizations to make full use
of information with the help of technology to service. In an organization,
information and technology exist in the form of an information system.
Whenever, an external or internal demand is anticipated or felt by the
organization, information system (IS) helps the organization to plan critical
response activities. The individuals are supported by IS to fulfill their roles.
The organizations use IS to track consumer behavior. With the availability
of technology, even in the form of hand held smart devices, it has become
possible to disseminate information at any time in case organization has
IS in place. The organization may take proactive measures rather than
firefighting measures based on the information provided.
Typical scenario in an organization is closer to what is shown below in
Figure 6.1
At Level I is the owner i.e. Chief of the organization or top level management,
Level II has middle management, Level III is lower level management and
at level IV are the workers.
With increased size of organization, the volume of data generated within the
organization also increased and IS became a necessity for rational decisionmaking by providing information at all levels by extracting from the pile of
data.
An Information System is developed to assist management in problem
specific decision-making. IS development and deployment project may
succeed or it may fail. A project is a success if it is completed within time
and budget and delivers all as decided in beginning. It must meet needs of
its users and organization. Over a period of time, the following main success
and failure factors have been identified. These days integrated software
modules are available which are required to be customized to have the
software in place. The software, so customized, may be either installed in inhouse serves or on cloud servers. In cloud servers and storage, organization
does not need to have servers and storage in its premises. Access to the IS is
through internet hence only computer/laptop/smart devices are required to
use the IS. There are many factors that contribute to the success of a project.
They are detailed below.
1. The project scope should be stable and well understood. If the scope
of the project changes during the development or customization of the
software, the project is likely to suffer in terms of quality, schedule
and budget overrun.
2. An MIS project that aims at re-engineering the business processes of
an organization faces major challenge. Such projects are high-risk but
at the same time have high potential for major benefits.
3. The technology development platform and development language
exposure are other critical factors. Sometimes, the technology may
be new and the team may have difficulty using the technology. The
platform and language newness may also create trouble for the team.
4. Support from the management is vital for the success of the project.
If management looses interest in the project, budget may be cut, key
people may be moved to another project or the moral support required
by the team may become non-existent.
5. The objective of MIS must be in tune with the objective of the
organization. For instance, objective of an organization is to cut cost.
An MIS that aims to handle financial transactions of the company is
not in tune with the company’s objective.
6. The system should be user friendly and the response time should be
reasonable so that the user feels good to work on the system. User
should never be over-powered by the system.
7. MIS should be developed with a clear objective that must be
documented before the development commences. The objective must
be identified with the help of all stakeholders. The system analyst must
interview concerned people to establish their needs. Inputs should be
consolidated and presentation should be made in front of stakeholders
and the development team. This should go till the user requirements
are fully covered and understood i.e. till the objective becomes clear.
8. An important aspect of an MIS is data. Data policy such as what data
will be included, who will provide the data, who will validate the
data, who will integrate the data and how will the data retire should be
clearly stated. These seemingly trivial issues can turn a success into a
failure.
9. A quality control plan must be in place to ensure quality of specification
and quality of conformance. If required, a third party may be engaged
for this purpose.
10. The concerned people should be adequately trained on the new
system. This skill development process should go on periodically
to overcome gaps due to shifting of human resources or because of
changes made in IS.
11. The system should be properly and explicitly documented so that
attrition does not affect the project or MIS adversely.
Integrated software packages help in real business growth. Seeing the wide
spread availability of such solutions from IT solution providers, companies
today put on priority to integrate their diverse business processes to simplify
operations for faster decision-making. Companies realise that if they have to
survive and grow, they have to use tools that can provide quicker and useful
information and cut costs to increase efficiency. IT has given businesses
a chance to generate information in real-time and thus grab opportunities
that were non-existent or unseen earlier. With the development of cuttingedge technology, we have seen evolution of many systems that has adapted
market demands. IT is readily providing business solutions now. Even
complete project undertaken by a company can be very well managed and
monitored today using Project Management Systems (PMS). They are
designed to assist project managers and their teams organize the step-bystep process of a project, identify priorities, and monitor project tasks, costs,
contacts, deadlines and staff. Complex projects that require staff, team
coordination, budgets and so on can be difficult to manage without the use
of project management software. Similarly, Business Intelligence (BI) tools
are also available for analytical study for making the business more and
more successful.
The integrated software solutions provide a platform to integrate all
processes in an organization enabling it to plan, trace and see its 4-m
resources (materials, machines, men and money) in the best possible ways
to service customers and reduce costs. If you want that your Business should survive with low overheads and still run efficiently then you have no choice Integrated Applications
but to opt for IT solutions.
Today, a typical business solution is an integration of ERP, BPR, SCM, CRM,
BI, and PMS. While ERP can take care of functions like accounts production
planning, payroll and marketing etc., BPR can be used simultaneously to
cut-down on all non-value added business processes and paperwork. These
systems are the enablers of change in the business for better. With the help of
these systems your business can compete better. These systems, combined
with the web, help you to reach your customers most cost-effectively.
There would be no cost incurred on travel and communication and no cost
incurred on setting up offices and employees. The Cloud services available
with almost all big players in the market have made the task of maintaining
integrated system much more simpler as compared to yesteryears.
E-Business generations are well explained with a pictorial representation
in the Figure 8.1 . By this you would be able to appreciate why we are
talking about integrations and business solutions and what place it has in
the present world. It can be seen that 4th generations business solutions
are using web to integrate all systems. ERP is used in a broader term here.
In fact the term ERP is the synonym for integration of all the software
catering to various business processes in organizations. Worldwide this
term i.e. ERP is used now for the total integration of business processes.
The software modules, BPR for reengineering the business processes and
PMS for project monitoring are used too for the respective tasks. Similarly
BI is used as the analytical tool for estimating and forecasting supports
for the business based on primary data (at the organization location) and
secondary data available through web for the analysis and inferences.
Here you should be clear that e-business is similar to e-commerce but
it is more than just a simple act of buying and selling services or goods
online. In fact, it is the method of utilizing digital information and advanced
communication technologies to streamline different business processes
– from the initial to implementation phase. E-commerce is just a part of
e-business.
